


Scar

by kristsune



Series: Waffles and Withdrawal au [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Blood, But it's not intense, Canon Typical Violence, Gen, Pre-Slash, and swearing, and talk about drugs, could be read as shippy or not, fight me, grace probably taught him, i mean i ship it, if anything, it would be, klaus can sew, so its kinda there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-16 00:10:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18083633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristsune/pseuds/kristsune
Summary: How Diego got his scar.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about how Diego got that incredible scar, and this kind of just popped into my head. I love these two an awful lot. I hope I did both of them justice.  
> Huge shout out to [Jesse](http://thebisexualmandalorian.tumblr.com/) who let me bounce ideas and thoughts off them <3 <3

Diego was finally on his way back to his place, it had been a long night on the streets, looking for whatever trouble he could find. And he had certainly found plenty. He stopped three petty thefts, four robberies and two carjackers. It was four am and all he wanted to do was get to his car, get home, and fall into bed.

A cut off shout down the next alleyway told him he wasn’t going to be able to do that quite yet. With a burst of adrenaline that he hadn’t realized he still had - but felt invigorating all the same - he ran down the alley to find a group of thugs surrounding a single figure. One of them was holding the poor victim against the wall by their throat. 

Well that was something Diego was not going to stand for. He unsheathed two of his knives and threw them in quick succession. Both hit their marks: the first into the armpit of the man holding the victim, who yelled dropping them. The second one into the the meat of the back of the guy blocking his view, who when down hard, face first. One out for the count anyway.

Diego froze. 

Klaus. 

_ Klaus _ was bent over gasping for air. It looked like this wasn’t the beginning of the night for him either. Diego could see the bruising along his sides and stomach between his crop top and low riding pants. When Klaus looked up at him, he saw a split lip, bloody nose and the beginnings of a black eye. 

Diego paid for his pause with a punch to the kidney. He growled and elbowed the guy in the face for it. He had to put his thoughts about Klaus to the side for the moment, or he wouldn’t be able to focus enough to secure the area. 

It took longer to dispatch the rest of the toughs than he really would have liked, but it had been a long ass night and he was tired. Adrenaline could only do so much. Diego was breathing heavily as he stood over the last guy after punching him senseless. 

Who he was saving hit him in the full force chest all over again, “Klaus?! Are you okay?” he turned around to find him still leaning against the wall. He still looked like shit, but not quite in such acute distress. 

Klaus tried to shrug and wink with a smile, but only managed a wince, “ ‘m fine. Fuckin’ had ‘em right where I wanted ‘em.”

“Yeah, sure ya did.” Diego huffed a laugh as he walked over to Klaus to check his injuries. Klaus was by no means helpless, but he hadn’t kept up his training after he left the house. Not to mention all the shit he put into his body did nothing to keep him in fighting shape. 

Diego stepped in real close, pausing for a moment before touching. Klaus still flinched, but gave a half smile reassuring Diego that it was okay. All in all it wasn’t  _ too _ bad, luckily his nose wasn’t broken, but Diego was worried about the bruising around his neck, especially with how rough his voice was. As annoying as Klaus could be, he didn’t deserve damaged vocal chords like this.

“What had those guys wanted from you?” Diego asked, but was honestly worried of the answer.

“Funny story, that. My dealer owes them money. Well,  _ technically _ I owe my dealer money who owes them money. But that fucker ratted me out, so these assholes decided to cut out the middleman and just come for me.”

Diego sighed, “Why didn’t you come to me? I would have helped you out.”

“Would you have?” 

The hurt in Klaus’ eyes hurt worse than the kidney punch. Diego resolved to do better by his brother. He needed him and he was letting him down.

Diego would later blame being too exhausted for missing the thug sneak up on them. And where that was definitely part of it, the reality was, that being that close to Klaus just  _ did _ things to him. It always had, but right now he was so  _ worried _ . Klaus just always had this knack of overtaking all of his senses. He didn’t notice the guy until he saw Klaus’ eyes widen in shock. 

Diego shoved Klaus aside, but in doing so, he wasn’t able to get his arm up in time to block the slice with his own damn knife. Damn, he should have collected those as soon as the fight had ended. Luckily he had been able to tilt his head in time to miss his eye, but it meant he got a long slash across his cheek and temple. Diego forced the knife out of his hand and jammed the heel of his hand up the guys nose, then kneed him hard in the balls. He went down hard, and wasn’t getting back up any time soon.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck.  _ Diego _ .” Klaus was standing in front of him, hands hovering over Diego’s cut sounding as panicked as he had ever heard him. 

“It’s alright. It’s a head wound, they always bleed a lot.” Diego looked down, and _wow_ , that was _a_ _lot_ of blood. He realized his mistake fairly quickly when he tried to move his head again and everything just _shifted_. He felt Klaus’ arms around him, one around his waist, the other dragging his arm over his shoulder.

Sound was going in and out but he could faintly “Okay okay. It’s gonna be okay. I’ve got a place we can go.” There was some grunting as Diego stumbled, “ _ Christ on a cracker  _ when the fuck did you get so heavy.”

Diego vaguely remembered being set down, but as soon as he laid back everything started to go dark, the last thing he remembered was Klaus’ worried face hovering over him. He wanted to tell Klaus he was fine, just needed a little rest, but he couldn’t get his lips to move. Just a little sleep, he’ll be better when he wakes up.

  
  


Diego groaned softly as he tried to shift into a more comfortable position when he realized he was not, in fact, in his bed. The end of the previous night slammed back into him all at once. He sat up quickly looking around, “Klaus?!”

Two things happened at once: Klaus startled so bad in the chair he had been half asleep and uncomfortably perched on, he ended up falling to the floor, and Diego felt a wave of lightheadedness so strong he almost passed out. 

“What the fuck happened? Are you okay? And why the fuck do I feel like utter shit.”

“Hmmm let’s see,” Klaus held up his hands to tick off his fingers, “You saved my ass like the good big brother you are. I’m fine; fine as hell.” Diego got a wink from the not blackened eye, “And you lost  _ a lot _ of fucking blood, and are probably more dehydrated than a sixteen year old with their first hangover.” 

Diego rolled his eyes and immediately regretted it, reaching up to touch his head, “Ow,  _ fuck _ .”

“Oh yeah, probably best not to touch that. You got a nasty cut. Well  _ cut _ is a bit of an understatement. You almost got partially scalped. You really shouldn’t keep you knives so sharp. You could really hurt yourself.” Klaus was trying to be his flippant self, but Diego could see the worry in his eyes.

Diego gave him a small reassuring smile, before finally looking at his surroundings. There was a mess of a tray of medical instruments, a lot of blood, presumably his, pictures of animals on the walls. Diego blinked, noticing that they weren’t just pictures, but  _ ads _ .

“Did you bring me to a fucking  _ veterinarian _ to sew up my head?!”

“ _ No _ . Well, actually yes. He sells me all  _ sorts _ of fun drugs for cheap. But he’s a fuckin hack. Sells drugs to addicts, can you believe? So, I wouldn’t let him touch you. I sewed you up myself. Brother’s touch and all.” 

Diego touched the side of his head, much more gingerly this time. It didn’t feel like a bad job, it was gonna leave a gnarly scar, but even if he had gone to a hospital the result would have been the same. 

“Not that I’m ungrateful, but why didn’t you just take me to an ER?”

Klaus fidgeted by picking under his nails, Diego realized it was his blood Klaus was picking at, “You looked like you were bleeding out. This place was close by, and I knew it would be clean. I did have to take fifty bucks from your wallet to bribe the vet, but I figured you wouldn’t mind.” He gathered back some of his usual confidence, obviously realizing he was getting too close to real emotions “Besides, you’re fucking  _ heavy _ , with all that” Klaus gestured vaguely at Diego’s .. everything, “muscle.  What was I supposed to do drag your bleeding ass onto the bus?”

Diego huffed laugh, “No I guess not.” He slowly attempted to stand up, only feeling slightly wobbly. He kept one hand on the table, but reached the other out, “Wanna go get some food then pass out at my place?” Klaus got up immediately, ducking under his outstretched hand to wrap his arm around his waist to help him walk. Diego couldn’t help but smile.

Klaus asked softly, “Could we get waffles?” 

“For this patch job? Absolutely.”  


	2. Waffles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of Scar from Klaus' POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just had to write this, well, mostly because i love writing the same moment from different views. It ended up a good bit longer, because Klaus just kinda... rambles, even in his own head. It's a bit more shippy than the first part, but its got the same ending, so just kinda preslash.  
> Huge shout out to [Jesse](http://thebisexualmandalorian.tumblr.com/) for letting me yell at them about this.

“You know, I am not usually one to say no to a gang bang, but I really don’t think you guys are quite my type. No offen-” Klaus’ witty remark was cut short with a back handed slap, causing him to shout, and it split his lip. Klaus shook his head to try and stop the ringing, he had been a punching bag for too fucking long tonight. “ _Christ_ , was that really necessary? I was just trying to be _polite_ and get the kink negotiation done _before_ we really got started. But no, you just want to jump in - "

“Shut him up. _Now_.”

“Oh, now I don’t think there is any-” Klaus was cut off for the third time in two minutes and was honestly tired of it. Though the lack of oxygen while being choked against the wall was fairly quickly becoming a bigger concern. The goons surrounding him were blocking both view and escape.

The big one holding him up suddenly dropped him with a yell, then the leader went down next (Klaus hadn’t even bothered trying to remember any of their names. He was lucky he could remember his own most days). As he was attempting to get air back into his lungs he looked up to see who or what his glorious savior was.

Diego.

It was fucking _Diego_. Staring at him like he was shocked to see him in a filthy alley surrounded by strange men. Klaus winced when Diego took the punch to the kidney and again when he obviously broke the goon’s nose with his elbow. To be fair, that fucker deserved it. Choking on his own blood from his nose was not what Klaus considered a good time. A dick though, that was so much more enjoyable.

It was extremely gratifying watching Diego dispatch the rest of the goons with his knives and his fists. He absolutely would have helped him if he thought he could actually do any damage, but with his current amount of bruising and lack of oxygen, he figured Diego could handle things just fine.

When Diego finally kicked the shit out of the last guy he immediately turned looking for him, “Klaus?! Are you okay?”

“ ‘m fine. Fuckin’ had ‘em right where I wanted ‘em.” He very much wasn’t fine, but when was he ever?

Diego huffed softly and Klaus just barely heard his “Yeah, sure ya did.” Then he got all up in Klaus’ space. Klaus couldn’t help but flinch, but it wasn’t because of Diego. _Never_ because of Diego. So he gave him a half smile, otherwise Klaus _knew_ he’d just back off, worried he was making Klaus uncomfortable. But he could never be uncomfortable with that beautiful wall of muscle so close to him, forehead crinkled with concentration and worry as he checked his wounds. Diego’s hands were so hot against his skin, making the bruising feel better just by being there.

Then Diego had to go and ruin the moment by asking the question he really didn’t want to answer. Klaus knew he was a disappointment, he really didn’t have the energy to be called out right now, “What had those guys wanted from you?”

So Klaus answered in his usual fashion, mostly truth but with enough flare to take off the edge, “Funny story, that. My dealer owes them money. Well, _technically_ I owe my dealer money who owes them money. But that fucker ratted me out, so these assholes decided to cut out the middleman and just come for me.”

Diego sighed, “Why didn’t you come to me? I would have helped you out.”

That. That hit much too close. Klaus lashed out before he could properly think about it.

“Would you have?”

Klaus, for once in his life, wished he could take words back. Diego looked like Klaus had just ripped his heart out of his chest. Yeah Diego could be tough on him, and teased him sometimes, but out of all his siblings, (besides Ben of course, but being dead kind of changed things) Diego actually gave a shit about him. He really did just want Klaus to take care of himself, he just… wasn’t entirely capable of doing that.

Unfortunately, Klaus was distracted trying to find a way to apologize and didn’t notice the Bastard, Leader of the Goons sneak up on them until it was almost too late.

Diego shoved him to the side, saving his life _yet again_. Unfortunately this time it meant Klaus had to watch as Diego got sliced from just below his eye to behind his ear. Klaus didn’t even have time to try and help because Diego practically smashed his nose into his brain and then his balls into his chest cavity.

By the time Klaus got to Diego blood was already sheeting down the side of his face, neck and soaking into his shirt and harness.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck. _Diego_.” Klaus wanted to put pressure on the wound but he had nothing on him, he wasn’t even wearing his jacket. Where the fuck did he leave that anyway? Fuck, Klaus. Focus.

“It’s alright. It’s a head wound, they always bleed a lot.” When Diego tried to meet Klaus’ eye, he legitimately swayed. Klaus had never been more worried for his brother in his life. Klaus immediately moved to support him. He _knew_ if Diego went down he wouldn’t be able to get him back up again. He wasn’t strong enough, never had been. He started babbling, while trying to form a plan, because when you regularly talk to the dead, talking out loud in general just helped him think.

He knew there was a veterinarian just a few streets down. He had gotten some _excellent_ drugs from him for relatively cheap. Now he just needed to get him there. Diego stumbled an almost brought them both down, “ _Christ on a cracker_ when the fuck did you get so heavy.”

After what felt like an actual eternity, they got to the back of the building. Klaus started kicking at the door, too afraid to let go of Diego, until it was answered.

“I’m not touching that.”

“You’re fucking right you aren’t.” Klaus tried to elbow his way through the door. “I just need a room to clean him up.”

The vet - Chad? Frank? Abner? Fuck if he could remember - stopped him with a hand to the chest.

“Oh for _Christ’s sake,_ he’s fucking _bleeding out._ Just let me use the room.” Klaus _might_ be exaggerating a little but Diego’s head was now lolling to the side, and Klaus felt like his heart was beating out of his chest. The rest of their siblings would _absolutely_ blame him if Diego died. Klaus wouldn’t be able to handle that. Not when Diego had only been trying to be a good brother and help him.

“No drugs?”

“No. No fucking drugs. Lock them up or whatever the fuck you do. Just. Let me clean and sew him up.”

“Fifty bucks. For supplies.”

Klaus made a loud noise of frustration, “ _Fine_. Let me put him down first.”

The fucker _finally_ let him in and Klaus was able to lay him down on the table that was generally used for large dogs. Klaus had to shove down a manic giggle at that thought. He dug into Diego’s left leg pocket. Still kept his wallet in the same place after all this time. He pulled out a few bills from whatever was in there. Looked close enough to fifty bucks, this bastard would just have to deal with it.

The guy shrugged and left. Fucking _finally_. First things first, Klaus need to clean the wound and stop the bleeding. Luckily it was already getting sluggish, they all had always been fast healers, if not supernaturally so.

Klaus quickly washed his hands and fumbled around for sterile materials. Grace had taught them all basic first aid in case they had needed to help each other before they could get back to the Academy.

Klaus cleaned the wound the best he could then ripped open one of the sterile suture kits. “Okay. Okay you can do this. Christ, Ben where the _fuck_ are you when I need you?!” Ben was around more often than he wasn’t, but sometimes he just _disappeared_ to...wherever the fuck the dead went. Usually it was at times like these when he could use someone that _actually remembered anything_.

Klaus took a deep breath and willed his hands to stop shaking. Or, well, not shake so badly anyway. What had Mom said? Make sure the two sides are even, to keep them from puckering. Pucker. What a horrible word. Diego definitely didn’t need any more pucker.

Klaus pushed the needle through as gently as he could, Diego muttered, but otherwise didn’t move. Klaus couldn’t decide if that was a good or a bad thing. On the one hand he _really_ didn’t need Diego’s commentary while doing this, but if it was bad enough that he wasn’t roused by the pain, maybe things were even worse than they looked.

Fuck it. No help for it now but to keep going. He pulled the thread through, wrapped it around the needle holder. _Twice_ . Mom always said twice, so you can make the knot. Fuck. What was it? One. Two. Three. One for the push through the skin. Two for the wrap around the needle. And three, for the amount of knots for each suture to keep it secure. Ha. Take _that_ Ben. He _could_ remember. Sometimes.

Klaus continued along the ugly slash, trying to keep everything as smooth as possible. Diego was always the prettiest sibling (sorry Allison) and Klaus _really_ didn’t want to be responsible for fucking that up.

Klaus breathed a sigh of relief when he finished (right around 20 stitches) but realized he wasn’t quite done yet. He had only cleaned the wound before he started to work, and he couldn’t just leave Diego coated in his own blood. That shit got _itchy_. So he grabbed a clean cloth and wet it to wipe down everything below Diego’s cheek. Unfortunately there was nothing Klaus could do about his shirt. That shit was a lost cause. At least it was all black.

Now that everything was still, and Diego was breathing evenly, Klaus unfortunately started to think. He still couldn’t believe that Diego saved his ass twice in one night, with no thought of his own well being. Did he really mean what he said? _Could_ he actually go to Diego for help? Could he actually help drown out the voices that haunted (sorry Ben) him any time he was sober? The big question was: Did he want to try and find out, and risk letting Diego down, _again_.

Klaus tossed the wet stained towel down on the table, pulled up a chair and flopped into it, leg over one arm and leaning against the other. Fuck, he forgot how much getting his shit kicked in exhausted him. The doors were locked, they were relatively safe, Klaus was just gonna close his eyes for a few minutes.

  


“Klaus?!”

Diego’s shout startled Klaus so bad he fell flat onto the floor. Guess that’s what he got for never being able to sit in a chair properly. At least Diego was alive.

“What the fuck happened? Are you okay? And why the fuck do I feel like utter shit.”

Klaus struggled back into the chair and started ticking off the answers. “Hmmm let’s see, you saved my ass like the good big brother you are. I’m fine; fine as hell.” Klaus couldn’t resist a wink, and Diego’s expression was _so_ worth it.  “And you lost _a lot_ of fucking blood, and are probably more dehydrated than a sixteen year old with their first hangover.”

Diego touched his head and immediately regretted it, how did he not feel that to begin with? Was it possible Diego’s pain tolerance was on par with his own? Klaus filed that tidbit aside for later. See what Ben thought about that, just to see his reaction.

“Oh yeah, probably best not to touch that. You got a nasty cut. Well _cut_ is a bit of an understatement. You almost got partially scalped.” Klaus saw the knife slice across Diego’s face again, and had to suppress a shiver. Too. Fucking. Close. “You really shouldn’t keep you knives so sharp. You could really hurt yourself.”

And then Klaus got to watch the most _wonderful_ series of expressions as Diego figured out where he was.

“Did you bring me to a fucking _veterinarian_ to sew up my head?!”

Klaus almost giggled, but managed to hold it back, but was able to feign some rather excellent indignation, “ _No_ . Well, actually yes. He sells me all _sorts_ of fun drugs for cheap. But he’s a fuckin’ hack. Sells drugs to addicts, can you believe? So, I wouldn’t let him touch you. I sewed you up myself. Brother’s touch and all.”

Klaus watched Diego think it over, and immediately calm down.

“Not that I’m ungrateful, but why didn’t you just take me to an ER?”

Klaus couldn’t stand looking at his earnest face, so he started picking at the dried blood under his nails, “You looked like you were bleeding out. This place was close by, and I knew it would be clean. I did have to take fifty bucks from your wallet to bribe the vet, but I figured you wouldn’t mind.” Ugh, things were getting too heavy, time to fix that! “Besides, you’re fucking _heavy_ , with all that” Klaus felt the need to gesture at Diego’s everything,  “muscle. What was I supposed to do, drag your bleeding ass onto the bus?”

Luckily the levity worked and Diego huffed a laugh,  “No I guess not.”

Watching him attempt to stand was … stressful. He obviously was still extremely woozy and trying to hide it, so when he held out his hand and asked, “Wanna go get some food then pass out at my place?” Klaus just ducked under his arm and supported him the same way he had the previous night to keep him from falling flat on his face. Klaus wasn’t sure if the warm fuzzy feeling he was experiencing was actual affection from his brother, the press of Diego’s body all along his side, or just whatever drugs were left in his system finally wearing off. But no matter what it was, it felt nicer than he expected.

Klaus couldn’t resist to ask, “Could we get waffles?”

He could _hear_ Diego’s smile as he answered, “For this patch job? Absolutely.”  

Klaus couldn’t wait until Ben came back, so he could tell him about everything. But especially the waffles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to stop by and say hi over on [tumblr!](https://kristsune.tumblr.com/)


End file.
